A Moment in Time & Space: Exploring Star Island Through Textile Arts
Natural colors found in some plants are affected by season, soil conditions, weather, and even the water pH of a given location. When we collect and use them in art, these variations mean the results are both geo-specific and frozen in time, and cannot be repeated. The same plant from different locations will give slightly different results. The same plant from the same location, but harvest in different years or even seasons, will provided different results. We will take advantage of these properties to create a series of prints on paper and fabric that will be unique to Star Island in this moment.
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OUR PROJECT
Join us for this fun, no-experience needed workshop where we will collect plants and use them for eco-printing and solar printing.
Eco-Printing takes advantages of the pigments, dyes, and tannic acids found in the plants, and uses heat and water to make a print of the plant on paper and fabrics. We will carefully harvest plants on Star Island and bring them back for printing. Students will have a large supply of paper to practice with and 8 cotton scarves to print on.
For our solar prints we will be working with colorful Jacquard SolarFast printing mediums to create layered ghostly reflections of your materials. They are just like cyanotype printing but easier to work with and more colorful. This medium can be layered and mixed to create unique prints. Students will have a large supply of paper to practice with and 8 cotton scarves to print on.
Students will we encouraged to experiment, and print over any less than favorable results to see what can be achieved. Eco-printing and solar printing can be combined to create dynamic results.
On the last day students have the option of creating a patchwork fabric or a set of prayer flags from the fabric prints they have made in the workshop.
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You can see some of my experiments with eco-printing & solar printing here.
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PLANTS WE MIGHT USE - HARVESTING WITH CARE
Star Island has a variety of plants that are useful for eco-printing including lesser celandine (ficaria vema), eastern blue-eyed grass (sisyrinchium atlanticum), sea weed, chives, buttercups, goldenrod, geranium, the non-native red cover (trifolium pratense), invasive vetches, and beach rose (rosa rugosa). We will make use of apps like iNaturalist and Flora Incognita to identify the plants we will use, harvest carefully, and discuss invasive plants. We can also use onion skins and carrot tops from the kitchen for prints.
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Additionally, feel free to join me in my afternoon adventures in eco-printing, solar printing, & natural dyeing as I work with plants from the island to dye fabric for a future art series. Natural dyeing is not part of this class but I'm happy to share my knowledge on the subject with you as I work.
